Rachel Browning’s Legal Blog

Not wanting to remain out of the ever-expanding loop of social networking, the Department of Homeland Security has created a new website called Our Border to promote an open dialogue among wide network of people interested in Southwest border issues. The website features groups such as Comprehensive Immigration Reform, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, Customs & Border Protection, and Immigration Customs Enforcement.  The blog provides a forum in which these groups’ myriad constituencies can communicate, argue, challenge and ultimately educate one another on the issues revolving around immigration and border security. 

Social networking sites are not new to the U.S. government.  The U.S. Department of State has its own presence on the web through sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and their own blog called DipNote, all of which provide the public with photos, news feeds and analysis of all matters related to U.S. foreign policy.   And of course, President Obama, whose use of social networking helped him ascend to the presidency, has stayed connected to the American people, by maintaining an active presence on numerous social networking sites, and with its own blog, featuring the latest news, remarks of the president, analysis on proposed legislation and promotion of the president’s broader agenda.

With so many challenges facing Americans today—from the current state of the economy, to our broken immigration system, to the wars and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan—we all have a responsibility as members of a democratic society, to keep ourselves informed and to broaden our own perspectives by looking to a variety of sources of information.  These sites are only the beginning, but they can provide an important tool in understanding the issues facing our elected and appointed officials, and the policies they are implementing to meet our nation’s challenges.  Whether you visit these sites or prefer instead the feel of newsprint in your hands, I encourage you to read and stay engaged in the debate. There’s too much at stake not to.

            Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano hosted an informal meeting at the White House, attended by 100-plus immigrant advocates, business and labor leaders, and law enforcement representatives, to reaffirm President Obama’s and his administration’s commitment to fair and reasonable immigration reform.  And while the meeting didn’t garner the level of media attention as, say, a beer summit, it did bring together constituents from many sides of the immigration debate, and gave the President the opportunity to reiterate his personal dedication to the issue.  He stopped short, however, of announcing a precise timeline for reform.

            So far, immigrant advocates have been less than thrilled with the lack of attention they perceive the Obama Administration has paid to the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.  Indeed, the Administration’s focus, under the leadership of Secretary Napolitano, has been on border security and issues surrounding criminal and fugitive aliens, immigration detention centers, and the electronic employee verification system. Immigrant advocates have been frustrated by the administration’s relative silence as to how and when it will begin to embark on its promised overhaul of the entire immigration system and deal specifically with the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S.

            But it’s not as if the President hasn’t had a few other items on his plate since taking office eight months ago.  The state of the economy, a Supreme Court nomination and confirmation hearing and now health care reform have all taken center stage and seemingly pushed the issue of immigration reform aside.  So the meeting and pep talk over which Secretary Napolitano and President Obama presided yesterday, was most likely reminder to its constituents –  those most immediately implicated by our nation’s immigration laws – that the administration hasn’t forgotten about the issue and that it’s still an important matter that it intends to address.

            The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) issued a statement in response, applauding the “positive message” and “(looking) forward to the President’s and the Secretary’s leadership on this issue in the days ahead.”  Crystal Williams, AILA’s Acting Co-Executive Director who attended the meeting, stated, “I was pleased to hear of the Secretary’s intention to step up her leadership on immigration reform.  There cannot be effective enforcement of immigration laws until those laws are reformed to realistically address the needs of families, workers, and American business, and to promote our long-cherished values of fairness and due process.”

            Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will apparently introduce and hold hearings on a major immigration bill this fall.  Needless to say, the country can look forward to more months of heated debates, town halls and public meetings as we venture from the contentious issue of health care reform to that of immigration.  Thus the madness continues….

            The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced today that as of August 14, 2009, it had received approximately 45,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions.  In addition, approximately 20,000 petitions qualifying for the advanced degree cap exemption had been filed. USCIS will therefore continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits.

            USCIS also announced that so far it has received 8,974 H-2B petitions for the first half of FY 2010.  It has approved 8,183 and 791 are pending.  On August 6, 2009, USCIS announced the reopening the FY 2009 H-2B filing period and immediately began accepting petitions.  Employers are reminded that H-2B petitions for FY 2009 must be received, evaluated and adjudicated on or before September 30, 2009.   Petitions received on or after Oct. 1, 2009, and/or requesting a starting date on or after Oct. 1, 2009, will be considered towards the fiscal year 2010 H-2B cap.

            As always, if you have questions about either the H-1B or H-2B visa programs, or other need other immigration-related information, Contact the Experienced Immigration Attorneys of Garg & Associates, PC in Houston, Spring and The Woodlands, Texas and Long Beach, California.

            In a signal that the Obama Administration and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are serious about responding to the criticisms of immigrant and human rights advocates, the Assistant Secretary of DHS announced this week that the DHS will be undertaking a series of reforms, effective immediately, to overhaul U.S. immigration detention system.  These reforms will attempt to address the myriad complaints about the current system, and implement the steps necessary to transform immigration detention from a criminal to a civil system and improve conditions at detention centers.

            According to the Secretary’s announcement, “the present immigration detention system is sprawling and needs more direct federal oversight and management. While ICE has over 32,000 detention beds at any given time, the beds are spread out over as many as 350 different facilities largely designed for penal, not civil, detention.”  The secretary also noted that ICE employees are not the ones running these facilities.  Instead, detention operations are handled by county authorities or private contractors, making the entire system very ad-hoc, inconsistent, and lacking in effective oversight.

            Through these reforms, ICE will move away from the present decentralized, jail-oriented approach to one designed for and based on ICE’s civil detention authorities.  Over the next several years, ICE will design facilities located and operated specifically for immigration detention purposes, and address specific detention issues in need of reform:  detainee access to medical care, overall conditions of custody, and ICE oversight of the detention system.

            Effective immediately, the following steps will be implemented:

·         The Creation of an Office of Detention Policy and Planning (ODPP), the function of which will be to plan and design a civil detention system tailored to ICE’s needs.

·         Hiring an expert in healthcare administration and an expert in detention management to staff the ODPP.

·         Hiring a medical expert to provide an independent review of medical complaints and denials of requests for medical services.

·         Recruiting and hiring 23 ICE detention managers to work in 23 significant facilities –facilities which collectively house more than 40 percent of our detainees.

·         Establishing of an Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) within the Office of Professional

Responsibility (OPR) to ensure agents and personnel have better access to facilities to conduct routine and random inspections more frequently.

·         Forming two advisory groups of local and national organizations interested in ICE’s detention system to provide feedback and input to the assistant secretary – one focusing on general procedures, and the other on healthcare.

            Additional details on the roles and responsibilities of the Office of Detention Policy and Planning, the Office of Detention Oversight and the Office of Professional Responsibility within the context of the Department’s proposed reforms, can be found here.

            If you or someone you care about is detained by ICE, contact an immigration attorney to find out your rights while in detention and any potential avenues for relief from removal.  The Immigration Attorneys of Garg & Associates, PC in Houston, The Woodlands, Texas and Long Beach, California can assist you in protecting your rights and obtaining the relief you desire.  Contact us for a Consultation.

            U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it is reopening the fiscal year 2009 H-2B petition filing period and will now accept new H-2B petitions.  Although USCIS had previously determined on Jan. 7, 2009, that it had approved a sufficient number of H-2B petitions to meet the annual cap of 66,000, the Department of State later revealed that in fact, it had received far fewer requests for H-2B visas than expected.  As a result, only 40,640 H-2B visas were issued for fiscal year 2009 to date.  Because of the low visa issuance rate, USCIS is reopening the filing period to allow employers to file additional petitions for qualified H-2B temporary workers in non-agricultural positions, to use the remaining 25,000+ available visas.

            The usual adjudication time frame for H-2B petitions is 60 days. However, because H-2B petitions for these 2009 visas must be received, evaluated, and adjudicated on or before the fiscal year deadline of Sept. 30, 2009, USCIS cannot guarantee approval of any H-2B petition on or before that date. The USCIS is therefore advising employers to file as soon as possible and to request premium processing which allows for expedited adjudication in approximately 15 business days.

            To qualify for one of the remaining H-2B visas, employers must:

·         Submit a Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker to USCIS with supporting documents, and the corresponding approved Alien Employment Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that is valid for the entire employment period stated on the petition.

·         The petitioner must also indicate an employment start date before Oct. 1, 2009.

            Petitions received on or after Oct. 1, 2009, and/or requesting a starting date on or after Oct. 1, 2009, will not be accepted for the 2009 fiscal year, but instead will be considered towards the fiscal year 2010 H-2B cap.

            The H-2B program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs for which there is a shortage of available U.S. workers. Typically, H-2B workers fill positions in occupational areas such as education, construction, health care, landscaping, manufacturing, food service/processing, and resort/hospitality services.

            Employers seeking to take advantage of the reopening of the 2009 H-2B quota should contact an experienced immigration attorney to assist in the process of filing the petition on time and according to USCIS and DOL laws and guidelines.  Contact the Immigration Attorneys of Garg & Associates in Houston, The Woodlands, Texas and Long Beach, California for more information or to schedule a Consultation.